The Sore Loser

My competitive side was getting the better of me. As far as we were into the game, it was clear I wasn’t going to win. I’d tried, strategizing my way through, but there was no doubt who would have the victory (not me.)

The temptation? To pick up the whole stinkin- board game and shake it. Maybe toss it. Maybe stomp on it, as I’d seen little kids I babysat do.

On that day, I was feeling like a sore loser.

That’s what Satan probably feels like every day.

Sometimes I need reminding of this, and maybe you do too.

Satan knows he is going to lose.

Victory, for all eternity, belongs to Jesus. He’s already won it. Fate is secure. Back in the garden when God pronounced His curses, Satan knew he would be the loser.

Still, he wages war. Sore loser that he is, Satan does what he can to stack the playing field so we doubt the outcome. He shakes up the board, so all the pieces look like they’re out of place and we can’t make sense of anything.

Like a bitter child about to be punished, he gets in whatever jabs he can anyway.

Satan likes to go down swinging.

That’s why faith is still a fight, even though we know who is going to win in the end.

The believer’s rallying cry is simply keep on.

Though that sore loser thrashes and trash talks and threatens that he isn’t playing, we know he’s missed the whole point of the game anyway. We’re not to miss it.

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” –1 Corinthians 15:58

Continuing to do the next thing, to play by God’s rules, to live faithfully to the finish line with our eyes on the prize- is not in vain.

Satan’s sore loser status…is.

“Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” -1 John 5:5